School Board Regular Meeting - June 18, 2025

001Well, good evening, everybody. Welcome to our regular school board meeting. It's Wednesday, June 18. It is 6:00 PM. Can we have everybody stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance? [INAUDIBLE] Roll call, please. Director Alvarez. Here. Director Espinoza. Here. Director Tidholm. Present. Director Holien. Present. President Van. Here. Thank you so much. Adriana. Calls or changes or additions to the board meeting agenda this evening. I call to move. Motion items 8.3, 8.5, 8.6, 8.8, 8.9, 8.1 and 8.11 to consent items. Thank you, Director Holien. I just want to clarify. You were rattling it off like it was bingo. So, 8.3? Yep. 8.5, 8.6, 8.8, 8.9, 8.10, and 8.11? Correct. Is that correct? Thank you very much. Board directors, do you have any questions or concerns on these motions? If not, can I please have a second? I'll

002second. All those in favor? We're going to do a roll call. OK, we're going to do a roll call. Roll call, please. Thank you. And this roll call is to move items 8.3, 8.5, 8.6, 8.8, 8.9, 8.10 and 8.11 to the consent agenda. That is correct. Director [INAUDIBLE]? Oh, apologies. Yea. Director Espinoza? Yes. Director Alvarez? I am trying to figure out what best way to-- Was there a question on one of those action items that-- In more of a maybe comment or-- I'll just-- it was more of a comment. So let's just-- I'll vote yea. Yea. OK. Thank you. Director Holien. Yea. President Van? Yea. This motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you very much. I also would like to move some things here. Dr. Duran invited one of our students to share a speech

003that she gave at graduation with us this evening. Rather than waiting until the superintendent's comments, I would like to move that item to on the agenda. Therefore, I would like to move that we add speaker Melissa Calderon Bracho under recognitions as item 2.1. Can I please have a second? I'll second that. Roll call please? Director Alvarez. Yea. Director Holien. Yea. Director Tidholm. Yea. Director Espinoza. Yes. President Van. Yea. This motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you. I also would like to move one other thing to move the presentation up. I would like to move the 2025 community poll results presentation up on the agenda. So I move that we move the item 4.1 to be item 2.3 under recognitions. Can I please have a second? I'll second. Roll call please. Director Espinoza. So to clarify,

004it's to move it up to-- 2.3. So it's moving it up on the agenda. OK, yes. Director Tidholm. Yea. Director Holien. Yea. Director Alvarez. Yea. President Van. Yea. This motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you very much. With that, there was a lot of work on that one. So thank you everybody for those changes and additions. So, moving to our recognitions do we have-- everything's good? Dr. Duran? Great. Thank you, President Van. I'd like to start off. We are, you know, way beyond the middle of graduations. There's 10 plus graduations that have already happened. Great celebrations and great recognitions for all of our students graduating in the class of 2025. We have two more on Friday night, Evergreen and Highline High School, at Showare. And so we look forward to completing the graduation season. But

005during this time of year, it's just always a pleasure to hear our students who have the opportunity to be able to share their words of both wisdom, courage, and challenge to their fellow classmates and, in some cases, to us fellow adults. And so I think we could have a whole board meeting that could just take the entire time to have every one of our students who does speak at graduation come and actually share their stories, and we'd all walk away with a little something new. But tonight, I wanted to ask Melissa Calderon Bracho from Raisbeck Aviation High School to come here tonight and read her graduation speech for all of us. So, Melissa, welcome to the podium. Thank you for being here tonight, arranging your schedule. Let's give her a big round of applause and

006welcome her. Hello. As the board mentioned, I'm a recent graduate from Raisbeck Aviation High School, and today, I'll be sharing my graduation speech. Hola, buenas tardes, and to my family, who had no clue I was speaking today, sorpresa. Good evening. My name is Melissa Calderon Bracho, and I'm a proud Venezuelan immigrant honored to speak on behalf of the class of 2025. [SPEAKING SPANISH] I arrived here surrounded by unknowns, but today, I am surrounded by possibility. I want to begin by thanking my parents for sending me to this country. As painful as it was to know I would spend many years without them by my side, they made that sacrifice so I could pursue my dreams in a better future. [SPEAKING SPANISH] There's no denying we go to a very unique school with a smaller class

007size than most. I'm sure we all had the same experience telling someone where we go and hearing, airplane school? You must want to be a pilot. And for some of us, that's true. But the next thing people usually say is, wow, I can't imagine seeing the same faces over and over again for four years. And honestly, I always wanted to say that even if our classes are small, they created a powerful sense of community. But the truth is, that's not always the case. Half of us don't even talk to each other. We have our own groups. And yet, despite that, seeing every single one of you for years has fundamentally changed me as a person. Whether I like you or you like me or we never said a word to each other, there's no doubt

008that each of us has impacted each other's lives simply through our presence. I'm the only Venezuelan in the entire school, and through high school, creating spaces where Latinos and women could be supportive became my mission. From founding the Latino Student Union to leading women in Aviation, I built the spaces I didn't see because when they don't exist for you, you make them. I was part of seven clubs, did scientific research, volunteered in hospitals, traveled to Olympia to speak with legislators, coded apps to break language barriers, started my own business, spoke at conferences, and won national awards and receive a full ride scholarship to college. But don't let my accomplishments fool you. Every one of those wins came with long nights and moments I didn't think I'd make it. I battled with health struggles, family challenges,

009and language barriers. But I know that I'm not alone in this. Everyone on this stage carries their own story, their own pain, their own strength. Let what happened to you move you forward, not stop you. My mom used to say, [SPEAKING SPANISH]. I don't want you to be the best or the smartest or the most accomplished. I just want to be-- I just want you to be a good person. That says more about you than any grade ever will. Some of us are the first in our families to walk the stage, the first to break barriers, the first to stand up for others. Today, I also want to speak about what's happening in our world, particularly with the political climate around immigration. Let us never forget that this country does not prosper without Immigrants. Our

010labor is often exploited. Our value is misunderstood. But let me be clear. Our worth does not come from our productivity. It comes from our culture, our community, and the love we share. We're not criminals. We are worthy. We're the people who build bridges when they put walls in front of us. Had I not come to this country to study and work hard, I wouldn't be standing here today and giving this speech to you. And among us in the class of 2025 are future lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, business leaders, people ready to carry the responsibility of building a better future. If there's one thing I want you to remember, it's this-- empathy. As we leave our home to enter the spaces we work so hard to reach, we must demand leadership rooted in empathy. We must

011not face double standards. We must demand equal respect and recognize that the safety of any vulnerable person is not a privilege. It's a right. If one person's safety is violated, everyone's is. Before I end, I want to talk about gratitude, To be grateful for everything that has brought you to this moment, for the people we met, the relationships we built, and the ones we're traveling miles from just to see in the future. I want to personally thank my counselor, Katie Carper, for guiding me through the application process and being the support system I didn't have. To my sisters, Manuel and Sarah, thank you for being my side while facing uncertainty yourselves. To my family and friends in Venezuela, to the ones whose futures were stolen, and to the ones still fighting for a better one,

012[SPEAKING SPANISH]. To the people who made my life better-- Sian, Ruth, Sophia, Bish, Thomas, Elisa, Evelyn and Maggie-- thank you. And to my other friends in the class, like Phoebe Bridgers said, anyways, don't be a stranger. And to the ones I no longer speak to, you taught me lessons I'll be forever grateful for despite everything. To all the teachers, mentors, and my incredible PI and lab members from University of Washington, Claudia, and the best mentor, Vesta, thank you. And with that, congratulations to the class of 2025. Like [INAUDIBLE] said, I wave goodbye to the end of the beginning and to airplane school. Like [INAUDIBLE] friend once said, the job got done. Thank you. Melissa, thank you so much for being here tonight and hope everyone also heard that she's on her way to college and

013has just a future full of possibilities. And just know that she represents all of our graduates that are coming out of our high schools today in 2025. So again, thank you for being here, Melissa. Appreciate it. Thank you so much, Melissa. Appreciate it. You can hang out if you'd like, or you can take off. So it's up to you. [INAUDIBLE], but thank you, everyone. [APPLAUSE] That was great. Thank you so much. Next up is one of our community partners. Girls, [INAUDIBLE]. Come on up. Good evening, Dr. Duran, Board directors. My name is [INAUDIBLE], And I'm the community partnerships manager for the district. As we close out the year, I want to thank our board directors for giving us the opportunity to recognize community partners who are going above and beyond to serve our students, our

014families, and our schools. I also want to extend our deepest gratitude to all of our community partners who have been champions of the Highline Promise this school year. They've been by our side during challenges and successes. So I want to give them all of their kudos. For our final recognition of the school year, we are proud to honor Girls Inc. of the Pacific Northwest. Girls Inc. is the preeminent young women's and girls leadership organization working directly with and for girls for over 160 years, implementing evidence-based programs at Cascade, Shorewood, North Hill, Mountain View, and Hilltop, supporting over 200 students to be strong, smart and bold. Their programs nurture emotional intelligence, leadership, and academic success while building year-round communities that uplift and empower students reflecting our district's commitment to a culture of belonging. At the heart

015of their work is a powerful belief that every girl deserves a safe, supportive space to learn and to thrive and within each student lies the potential to become a confident, compassionate leader and a force for positive change in their community similar to Melissa. At this time, I'd love to welcome Girls Inc chief program officer, Grace Mulongo-Blake, and the new CEO, Nadja Sailesman. Thank you, and good evening. I'm Grace Mulongo-Blake, our chief programs officer. And this is Nadja Sailesman. Hi. I'm very new, so I'm here supporting Grace and learning. So, thank you. We are, again, extremely grateful for this moment to acknowledge our partnership. We are here-- and really, we've been working with Highline since 2018 and we are very honored to have worked with Highline across the district this year. As [INAUDIBLE] mentioned, our mission

016is to inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold. And thanks to our partnership, we've done this across five Highline schools this year. We have served more than 150 students, totaling nearly 250 hours of direct engagement. And at Shorewood specifically, we met with students regularly across all three terms and delivered over 360 contact hours. But behind these numbers are extremely powerful stories. At North Hill, we received feedback from parents stating that their youth had an excellent time. They came home full of energy, stories, and they appreciated the opportunity to be somewhere where they felt so supported and like they belonged. One of our youngest participants at North Hill, a third grader, put it perhaps best and said, I like talking and being with the girls at Girls Inc. I feel like I trust everyone

017here. At Shorewood, we also hear this feedback from school counselors from administration. They've called our program a tremendous gift, saying our girls have blossomed. The skills they've learned have led to greater confidence, stronger self-esteem, and a deep sense of community. At Mount View, they've said that we give students a safe space to grow, connect, and practice life skills. Their presence uplifts our whole school. And then at Cascade, I did want to call out-- we've been at Cascade again since around 2018, and this spring we did a unit on identity, which sparked the most open and vocal discussions we've ever had in our groups. Youth built trust. They explored vulnerability and laid the groundwork for very powerful final projects. We also hear from youth long after they've left our programs. A former Shorewood participant texted one

018of our program managers recently, completely out of the blue, and said, you have given me the most confidence I've ever had. I miss girls group every Thursday. Thank you for being so supportive of me. So as has been mentioned, these are more than programs. These are spaces for connection, belonging, and growth. And they're made possible by our incredible partnership with Highline. Thank you so much for having us, and we thank you for your collaboration, your leadership, and we are just deeply proud to be part of the Highline community, and we look forward to all that lies ahead. Thank you. Yes, so we're going to have you come on up, and, we're, going, to, take, a photo. OK, our next presentation, this is going to be our 2025 community poll results. Tove? Come on up, Tove.

019Good evening, Superintendent Duran, President Van, and members of the board. Tove Tupper, chief communications officer. I am really excited because tonight we are going to be sharing the results of our annual community poll. We do this poll every year, and the purpose is to better understand the interests, the priorities, and the perceptions of our community. This provides feedback not only from parents but also residents at Highline that don't have a connection to our district either as a staff member or as a current parent. And it's one of the ways that we ensure we're getting really robust feedback from our community from a variety of demographics. The results really highlight the priorities and the values of our community, the perceptions of our community. And it really guides-- the feedback guides, the work that my team and

020the communication office does, and it guides our priorities and our decisions as a system. And tonight, you're going to hear that our community really largely supports the work that's happening in Highline. They value the work that we're doing. They have strong perceptions of us and particularly resonate with our strategic plan and strategic priorities. So I'm going to turn it over to Ben Winston, who's the senior director of Pantera, who will share the detailed results with you. And if you have questions, you may ask them as well after the presentation. Thank you very much. Good evening. Thank you, Tove. Thank you, Dr. Duran, and thank you to the board for having me. My name is Ben Winston. I'm a senior Director at Pantera. I've been working with Highline Public Schools since, I believe, 2020 on the

021Community Survey each year. So I'm going to go through about 10 or 12 slides tonight and happy to answer any questions at the conclusion of that. So we conducted a survey via phone and online interviews in mid-May. So this was about a month ago, fairly recent. We did interviews with about 400 residents across the community. We often get asked in a district of 130,000, 140,000 individuals, how can you talk to only 400 of them and have that be representative of what all people across the district think? And, well, it's surprising to me too, but it does work out. What is most important in that is that the 400 people we speak to are representative demographically, geographically, ideologically, and so on and so forth, of the full adult population of the district. So we take great

022pains to ensure that the 400 people we speak to, our sample, is reflective of the full population of the district. And I'll show you here roughly what that looks like. These are the broken down demographics of the 400 individuals we spoke to. This matches the US Census parameters of Highline Public Schools of the district. I'll note that this represents the demographics of our adult population. So this is not just parents. This is not just people connected to the district, and this isn't the full population, including those below the age of 18. These are the demographics of the 18-plus adult population of the district, and that's who we spoke to. And therefore, we can be confident that the results that we found are reflective of, within a margin of error, a couple of points either way,

023of the full views of the district. So I'm going to talk through some of the perceptions that residents have of the district and some of their priorities for the future. Let me start with perceptions of Highline Public Schools. This is a question we've been asking year over year. Are you satisfied with the quality of education provided in Highline? And this is a question I do polling for a number of districts across the state. This is a question we ask in all of them. Highline performs very, very well on this question. The residents think that the education provided in HPS is very, very good. You see 51% overall are satisfied. Just 28% are dissatisfied. Also, you can see on the right of this slide, we've been asking this question year over year, and we see a

024notable increase in improvement in Highline ratings over the past year from 41% satisfied up to 51% this year. We also ask whether people have a favorable or unfavorable impression of Highline Public Schools, and again, on this measure, Highline performs very well. 45% of residents say they have a favorable impression, 23% of residents are unfavorable. That's about a 2 to 1 ratio. And we get about a third who say they don't really know. They don't have an impression either way. That's very normal. Almost every district has a similar proportion of residents who they don't have a student in schools. They're not connected to schools. They just don't have a very strong impression one way or another. So this is a very healthy 2 to 1 ratio of positive to negative, and you can see this has

025been quite consistent over the years, although the unfavorable rating has declined each year. So only about a quarter of residents have a negative perception of public schools. One last data point I want to show, when it comes to what residents think about the school district is how residents rate the district is doing on various metrics such as maintenance of schools and facilities, school safety, and communication with the community. And in all three of these metrics, Highline's ratings are quite good and not just that have improved relative to last year. We've seen 8 point improvement on facility maintenance, a 7 point improvement on safety, and an 8 point improvement on positive ratings of the communication, the district, the outreach over the past year. So the first question that comes to mind is why, and we don't

026entirely know. There are only so many questions we can ask in this survey. But we have a few ideas or hypotheses as we look at this data. First of all, simply the district's performance, right? It's a testament to the work that you all, to the staff, to teachers, principals, all the way down are doing. And the community is feeling that and noticing that, and they're proud and happy with the work that the district is doing. That's certainly the main part of it, right? There are also some evolving demographics in the district that changes year to year that are probably contributing to increased improvements in the district's ratings. We also might hypothesize that events such as the cyber attack last year, there tend to be, after events like that-- COVID is another example where after a

027shock like that hits the community, there may be some sort of rallying around a public institution like the school district where people see the district go through that. Everyone goes through that together, and they tend to come out of that feeling proud to be a part of that community and rating it highly. So that certainly could be a factor as well, And finally, the national political environment, I would say, is also something that has changed from last year to this year. And again, given the district's demographics, that could be a factor in people again rallying around a local public institution that they feel favorably towards. So those are all factors that could contribute to these improvements. I also want to talk a little bit about what residents think with regard to funding measures that could

028be on the ballot in the future. As it stands now, about two in three residents think that the district needs additional funding. 64%, including 33%, which is a pretty high number for this type of question, saying the district definitely needs additional funding, with just 5% of residents think too much is being spent on schools. Paired with that, over half of residents, 56%, say the state is not providing enough money to Highline. The state provides too little funding. Just 7% think the state provides more funding than the district needs. These are very strong numbers. Again, we ask this question in many different districts across the state, and these are on the higher end of a recognition of a need for more funding compared to other districts. Thinking more about levees and bonds that might be on

029the ballot, we wanted to understand whether residents see them as critical measures to fill a gap between what the state provides and what the district needs to fund program services and staff or whether the community tends to think that levies and bonds are just supplemental funding or extra funding that the district doesn't really need. You see the breakdown here, where 55% of residents recognize that levies and bonds fill a gap between what the state provides and what districts need for basic services. Just 27% think, about half as many think, that that funding is just supplemental or extra. We wanted to take a look at, within a future levy, where residents would want levy funding to go, or what resonated most with the district about a potential Levy. What we found is-- here are some priorities

030I'll read you. Ensuring that all students, regardless of abilities and needs, are fully included and welcome in the classroom was a very powerful statement that residents want as a priority for funding. Mental health counselors and staff, increasing pay for educators, career and college readiness specialists and staff who connect students with career fairs and job or apprenticeship opportunities-- classroom technology and cybersecurity was top of mind for, you know, for obvious reasons, after the past year, and materials, supplies and operating costs, facility maintenance, utilities and so on and so forth falling a little bit lower on the list. As you might imagine, that's not like the sexiest thing that's going to get everyone to get excited about a levy. But it is something that a broad range of people across the district recognizes is important and necessary

031as well. When it comes to the district's board-approved strategic plan, that is something we put in front of community members, the four elements of it, and we asked them whether, having read that, they would think that the district shares their values, shares their priorities. We get a very, very strong response. 80% of community members see those strategic plan goals and say, yes, the district shares my values, shares my priorities. Just 14% say they don't think the district does. This year, something new, we also tested-- Dr. Duran and the district introduced four priority areas for the district to focus on this year in school. We phrased these in language that the average person would understand. We didn't use the term MTSS in the survey, but they did reflect the four priority areas-- secondary redesign, literacy, inclusion,

032and MTSS. These also performed very strongly. They resonated very well. 80%, exact same number of residents, said that upon hearing these, again, they think that the district shares their values, shares their priorities. And these were, I would say, much more concrete, on the ground actions relative to the strategic plan goals, which were a little bit broader. And they both do very well. Having heard the district's strategic plan goals and priority areas, we again asked, now that you've heard this, how do you feel about the district now that you know a little bit more about them? And we see the district's favorability rating go from 45-23 up to 58 to 18. That is a net 18 point shift, a 13 point increase in the number who say they are favorable towards the district. That is a

033pretty large uptick. And what it suggests to us is that some of the people who are not giving the district a favorable rating at first are doing so just because they don't know a lot about the district. They don't know the district's strategic plan goals. They don't know the district's priorities. And when they hear that, when they're informed of that, they tend to become much more favorable towards the district. We asked a couple questions about the curriculum and the district's approach, including one, which is, should public instruction include age-appropriate discussion of issues related to race and identity? Here, we see a fairly resounding result, with 78% of residents saying that these issues should be a part of the curriculum to some degree, 45% saying they should be a substantial part of the curriculum, and a

034smaller proportion saying they should be a small part of the curriculum. 14% say those issues should not be included at all in the curriculum. We also asked whether the district should be welcoming to students regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation. And again, the result here is clear, with 84% saying that they agree that the district should be welcoming and 10% disagreeing with that statement. Last couple questions-- it was clear from the survey that residents were aware that there were differences between the federal government's approach and priorities when it comes to education and the district. And so we asked, how would you like the district to respond? How would you like the district to communicate its values? And the options were whether the district should stand true to its values, be outspoken about it,

035maintain its values but avoiding a confrontational approach, being the priority, finding a middle ground between its approach and the government's, or accepting the federal government's direction and approach. And again, you can see the results here from top to bottom. We see a pretty strong majority at 61% in those top two categories, saying that the district should maintain, stand true to its values, and most of those people saying the district should be outspoken about this, should communicate those values. And, this is, I would say, validating response for the district's approach and direction. The last question I'd like to cover is how residents get their news and information about the district. Certainly, it is much easier to reach parents of students in schools and those that are in the school community already and a bit more difficult

036to reach those who are outside the school community, don't have a kid in school, so on, and so forth. The main way that people-- or the biggest way that people are hearing about the district is through mailers that they receive in the mail. They also, especially parents, especially those in the community, are getting emails, texts, direct information from schools. And then there is some amount of information coming through on local TV, radio, talking to friends, neighbors, and so on and so forth. This is all quite consistent with what we've seen last year and the previous year's polls. So we haven't seen a lot of major changes in the way that people are hearing about the district. So that's it for the slides. I'm happy to take any questions that you all have. Thank you, Ben,

037so much for coming and sharing this with us again. Board directors, any follow up questions for Ben? I have a question. Slide 10, it shows the 80% of the residents say that our priorities align with theirs, and 13% say that our priorities do not. Do we have any data regarding, like, just breaking it down, like, who were parents and who were not for that question? Yeah, it was very consistent on this question. So both parents and non-parents were very strongly saying that the district's both strategic plan goals and the priority areas aligned with their priorities. Now, many times when we ask questions like this, we get much stronger response from parents, and non-parents are much more mixed. In this case, we got even the non-parents, people who are not connected to the school community were

038very much aligned overall with the district's priority areas. Thank you, and other questions? I have two. I'm sorry. I have two. Thank you very much for being here and presenting this data to us. The first one is, is there a way that the public can look at data that is statewide so they can actually look at Highline's performance versus, say, Seattle or Mercer Island or Renton? Is that available? It's a great question. These polls are rarely released publicly at the district level. Sometimes, there will be a question or two in a public poll. Like, the Seattle Times publishes a poll, something like that. But typically, not so much. Thank you for that. My second question is what kind of meaningful feedback are we hearing for parents, and where does that align or not align with

039non-parental community members? Yeah, so I mean, the feedback and the response from especially parents but also non-parents in this poll was very strong and very positive. So there was not a lot of critical feedback on the whole. I will say one item that stood out to me as a notable difference between parents and non-parents was that especially non-parents were very keyed up on CTE programming, on career and college readiness staff and services and programs. That's something that both last year and this year has come through very, very strongly, particularly among non-parents, as being a priority for them as what they would like to see more of in public schools. Thank you. Please. And I just want to reiterate that, you know, 2/3 of the respondents-- can I have that? Yeah, 2/3 of respondents were non-parents,

040and we still have broad support and buy-in and alignment on our strategic plan goals and priorities and, and other questions. And I think that's just telling of how strong the belief and the trust is in our organization, from our community, from, you know, both parents and non-parents. Great. Thank you for bringing that to our attention, Tove. [INAUDIBLE] might be able to speak to you specifically about parent feedback. Yes, good evening. I just wanted to add that we have begun surveying our families on an annual basis beginning in 2023, and you can see some of those survey results on our strategic plan dashboard. We just got our results in for this school year. And so we haven't yet had an opportunity to comb through as a cabinet. But what we're seeing overall is that parents, their

041favorability ratings for Highline are increasing. It's been like two percentage points every year since we've been. So that's one way we get feedback from our parents related to our strategic plan goals. And we also engage with our family action committee and our Highline Council PTA on a regular basis as well. So we hear that quantitative and qualitative information from our families. Thank you, [INAUDIBLE]. OK, so I have a question, and it's about the not sure her category across the responses. So there was this question about the four strategic areas. And then you mentioned that you had shared information about those areas in language that was accessible to people, and that helped folks provide a more informed response. I want to know how we can shift the not sure to a more stable response or a

042more clear response. And I don't know if that means that we can identify some of the action steps that we could take as a board or as a district. But how do we shift those folks from not sure to having a clear direction? Yeah, it's the perennial challenge of how to get information about what the district is doing in front of people who are not typically looking for it, right? They might get a mailer tossed in the recycling bin. They're not reading the newspaper stories about schools. So it's always a challenge. You know, I think what Tove and team do, correct me if I'm wrong, is use many different channels. You know, they use the results of the survey to help look at where people are getting their information, especially where those non-parents where those

043not sure people are getting their information about schools, and use multiple channels and sort of that consistent framing and consistent language to hit people where, where they might see it as much as possible. But that's, that's always the trick, right? Right. One part of to that too is I think again, I think we've done a really great job of doing some storytelling around the work that we're doing in our schools, and I think we just have to continue to do some of that work to ensure that we're sharing the story in multiple ways. I think even, you know, having the billboards up in our community is helpful because people can see our imagery and see some of the work that we're trying to do. So I think it's an opportunity for us to continue the

044storytelling around the good work that we're doing here within our schools and great work our teachers are doing and our leaders are doing in all of our sites. A couple of years ago in the survey results, we discovered, with Ben's help and the data, that one of the stories that resonates with our community, both parents and non-parents, regardless if they were favorable to Highline or not, was our career and technical education programming. And there was a sense of Highline doesn't do that. And we knew that wasn't true. And what that told us was that we weren't doing a good enough job of communicating about that work. And so for the last two years, based on that data point, we've worked really hard in the communications team to share those stories very strategically in spaces that

045we know people might not be hearing about us. So for example, we have a mailer. We do a quarterly mailer that we send to all residents that has about to hit the mailboxes, or it might have already arrived. I don't know if you've received-- It did arrive. It has arrived. Mine has not arrived yet, but I know there's a little bit of time. And the stories that were selected on that mailer were very strategic. So we're talking about our career connected learning, new program over at Tyee High School that we're launching in the fall. We're talking about a core program that we offer in some of our schools, where kids get access to construction programming. That was strategic, because we know that those are stories that are important to our community. We want them to

046know that work is happening in Highline. And we know from this slide that the majority of the residents hear about Highline through the mailers. So that's strategic. So the thing that I've learned this year because it was the first time we've pulled it was about our new priority areas that we've been focused on this year-- the literacy, the MTSS, secondary redesign, and-- MTSS secondary redesign-- Inclusion. --and what-- inclusion, thank you, and that residents really responded to that. So what my team will be doing this fall, we've already started the groundwork of doing storytelling around that. But we're going to have a concentrated effort on storytelling next year because of that, and we'll measure the progress in a year from now to see how we're doing, and we'll adjust and hopefully see gains. I'm confident we

047will because we did see gains with CTE and career connected learning awareness through that work. Thank you very much. Any other questions, Dr. Espinosa? No. Thank you. Director Alvarez. No, I think Tove just hit it right on, and I think that there's a lot of things that we know we're doing, and it's just that storytelling. And how do we communicate it? How do we get it out there so our community can see? I know there's always a challenge in how do we say everything that we're doing, and how do we strategically get it out there in a way that our community, our families, are seeing it. And just because we're not saying it doesn't mean that we're not doing it. And how do we focus on one thing while we're not neglecting others? So it's

048just this-- so no. And I love, Tove, as you're mentioning, you know, there's especially our priorities. And I think that-- I feel like we're doing a better job now that we're really intentionally focusing on our priorities. And how do we storytell-- instead of just numbers, how do we really get our stories out there? Because a lot of times, data is great, but our families really need to see the true stories. Like, just hearing our speaker tonight, our student come and tell her story, I mean, she's graduating. And it's not just about she completed these tasks and she's on. She told her story about not how she just immigrated here or she got here and the sacrifices her family did but the connection she did with her, with her peers and some not connected and some

049lost that she had. Like, even she mentioned those students that she's not even connected to. She gained from that. She learned from that. And so how do we do a better job of telling our stories so others can see that just because we're not jumping up and down and saying that we're doing this doesn't mean that we're not doing it, right? Just because we're not mentioning it. And so I love the fact that how we're focusing now on our priorities to tell the story and not just with numbers and in these flyers. How do we with pictures and with the billboards or whatever we're doing, but that people can see because if not, they think that we're not doing it when we are? Thank you very much. Thank you, Ben. Can you go to slide

05013 real quick? Be great. So the slide, that shows that 61% of our residents want Highline to stand true. So this is more so of a comment and not a question. So it shares that Highline stands to be true, to hold to our values knowing that 2/3 of these are non-parents. And over the last year, the board has consistently stood up for our students, including our resolution 02-25, our schools and our promise. As we continue this work, I'd like to share with our directors that this is truly what it means to lead boldly in our schools. So I just want to thank you, thank our community, thank our parents out there for really believing in what we're doing here, and we're just getting better at it. So, give us an opportunity. So with that said,

051thank you so much, Ben, for being here and presenting. And President Van, I'd just like to add to that to thank our teachers and our leadership, because they're the ones who are doing the work out there with our students. I appreciate that clarification. Thank you. So we're going to move on to our scheduled communications. We have 14 speakers this evening. So on behalf of our board, we sincerely appreciate you taking the time to join us this evening and sharing your thoughts. You'll notice that our norms and guidelines are displayed on the screens for your reference. Please remember that you are addressing the board, and there may be students present or watching who are listening carefully to what you say. Please note while the board is unable to respond directly to your testimony during the meeting,

052we value your input. So thank you for being here and speaking with us. With that, first up is Sabrina Evans. Hi. I'm Sabrina Evans. I'm also from Raisbeck Aviation High School. So I'm a freshman and not a graduating senior. So today, I'm here to speak about energy and energy management and production, suggest a few ideas about it. We are currently doing a clean energy project at my school as a final, and I would like to share some ideas that I had about it. I realized that Highline school district is currently building and planning for new school buildings, such as the Evergreen High School. Tyee-- is that how you pronounce it? OK-- High School, and having students spend two years at Olympic intern site in Des Moines during the construction of Pacific Middle School. I'd have

053a few questions for you, though you guys are, of course, aren't answering to them, but-- and have you ever thought about using clean energy-- clean, sustainable energy sources? I know a few schools have them, such as solar panels, and I understand that this would be a lot of work and a lot of money specifically for solar panels. But have we ever considered the benefit that the schools and environment would take from using these? Though they may be expensive at first, they have a long term benefit. They will actually reduce the cost of energy bills in the end. They don't need as much maintenance, and it can help teach students more about the environment, renewable energy sources, the budget, and why solar panels even work because honestly, it took me, like, a month to figure that

054one out. So my final question would be what would it take to put more solar panels on schools. I know Highline-- Thank you. Sabrina. If you could do me a favor-- Thank you. --can you please forward your message to Adriana, and she'll forward it to the board? Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next up is Andy Rubido. Andy Rubido. OK, we're going to move on to Mari Moon. Good evening, board members and Dr. Duran. Thank you for your time. I'm Mari Moon, one of the school psychologists in HBS, and I'm back because I really love it here. Very soon, I'll be in my 12th year here in Highline, and this is absolutely the best district to work in as a school psychologist. All of my colleagues support each other in our

055work and our values. All of my teams, as well as my current administrators, are invested in our students and their families regardless of what those students and families look like, where they were born, regardless of what names those students prefer. Students who feel safe and feel like they belong and are welcome are so much better equipped for learning. In fact, students cannot learn effectively if they know they're not accepted. I am so glad that no matter what else is going on, my coworkers are absolutely doing the best for our students. Recently, I've had several meetings with families because, you know, I do evaluations of families, what I learned. And I'm hearing from the parents of our students how happy they are that their students are being accepted, loved, cared for, not only taught academics but

056feeling safe. And I had a couple of families where the students weren't feeling safe in previous schools. And to hear from those families, we are never moving because we love having our kids here, it's just the biggest compliment, I think, and I thought everybody. Thank you. Larry Moon? Hi there. I'd like to thank the board, Dr. Duran, for this time and attention. I am Larry Moon, proud partner of a Highline professional educator. I am here to spread some love and talk about public schools. Public schools accept all students. Private schools are not obligated to provide a free and appropriate education to all students like Public Schools are. If a school can reject a student for any reason-- excuse me-- that school should not receive public funding. I know several Highline professional educators, and I appreciate

057them immensely. Each and every student matters to them. Equity and safety for each student is important to Highlight educators, and this results in the students feeling safe and accepted for exactly who they are. Students need to feel safe and accepted in order to learn. This being Pride Month, let me add that according to the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ student who feels accepted by just one adult has a 40% lower risk of death by suicide. Imagine the feeling of being accepted by most or all of the adults you see frequently. Again, one of the best things about Highline educators is that they live the truth of public schooling and accept, care for, and teach every student just as the student is. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you very much. Alex Myrick. Good evening,

058directors. By the day after tomorrow, this district will have over 1,000 newly minted graduates. The tragic irony is that many of them will be unable to read their own diplomas. At the last board meeting, Dr. Duran claimed, quote, literacy remains a central priority in Highline, and we continue to invest deeply in the systems, professional learning, and supports to ensure every student becomes a strong reader, unquote. These would be encouraging words, if they were sincere and reflected in the record. However, I was present at a board meeting several months ago where former directors Hagos and Petrini proposed making literacy a legislative priority. This was voted down by you, Directors Alvarez, Tidholm, and Van, with the approval of Superintendent Duran. Are we seeing a 180 degree reversal, or is this a case of just giving lip service

059to literacy? If our graduates cannot read and write adequately, employers do not care how much they feel they belonged in school or how many years of social emotional learning instruction they have received. We need to invest in literacy programs with proven effectiveness. We need tutoring and remediation for those who have fallen behind. We need robust goals and key performance indicators. If a student is three years behind and meets the goal of progressing one grade level over one year, guess what? They are still three years behind. The American Reading Company has some dedicated line staff but notoriously poor upper management. We have paid them for their services for over five years, and reading scores have fallen during that time. It's time to find a replacement or at least diversify. Much damage has already been done, and

060we have another generation of young people seriously at risk. Thank you very much. Next up, Patricia Bailey. Patricia Bailey-- I don't see her. OK, next up is Timothy Vu. Good evening, everyone. I'm Timothy Vu, a sixth grader from Cascade Middle School, and I've been a part of the Vietnamese dual language program for seven years. I want to thank the board for listening to our concerns, but I think we have to do better because this will be the future for younger generations. I want Vietnamese language arts to be more than just one semester. I want to learn social studies in Vietnamese. I want to have Vietnamese classes in high school. Right now, cutting Vietnamese classes in middle school doesn't help me prepare for the seal of biliteracy, and having no Vietnamese classes in high school doesn't

061give the students another chance to achieve the seal of biliteracy if they don't get it in eighth grade. Back in elementary school, I learned math, reading, writing, science, and social studies and social emotional learning in Vietnamese. Half of my day was in Vietnamese, and I was proud of that. I felt connected to my family, my culture, and my future, and I want that same experience in middle and high school. This year, only two to three days a week, I have Vietnamese for half of the day. The other days, I get less than 25% of the day in Vietnamese. I want our district to find ways to let more people know about our program because I know there are many families out there who would like to be part of the Vietnamese program. Cascade is the

062only middle school in Washington State to have a Vietnamese dual language program, and some families can't get there because they live too far away. Please consider expanding it. My reason why we should keep the Vietnamese program growing-- not many people speak Vietnamese. So if we stop now, then one day, the language could disappear in our community. And I don't want my language or culture to be erased. Yeah. [INAUDIBLE] Next up is Timothy Vu. I'm sorry, I crossed it out. So, next up is Salama Osman. Hi. Good evening. You probably remember me from two weeks ago, speaking about the Vietnamese dual language program. I'm back today to thank the board members, the district, and the school for listening to our concerns and taking meaningful steps to put back the Vietnamese dual language program at Cascade Middle

063School. I truly appreciate the efforts and the changes made from the initial plan for the school next year. In the past, I believe Cascade had an outreach recruitment program where the recruiter would go to neighboring schools and invite families who identify as Vietnamese to learn about the VDL program, and that recruiter would help with enrollment and transportation registration. The outreach recruitment program will bring awareness to the community regarding the VDL program and improve enrollment numbers. Similarly to the elementary school dual language recruitment program for the kinders, I would love to see that same support and commitment at Cascade. I would like to request the district and board members to extend this support for an outreach recruitment program for the VDL program at Cascade Middle School. I also want to take this opportunity to share a

064few data. Last year, 16 out of the 21 eighth grader at Cascade Middle School passed the Vietnamese seal of biliteracy test. That is a 76% passing rate. This year, an impressive 87% of the eighth grade students that took the test passed. These results are encouraging and show clear progress. Let's continue building on this momentum by offering more classes in Vietnamese. Let's aim for a 90, at least a 90% passing rate for the biliteracy test. I know the district, the school, and families can support our students in achieving this goal. Thank you again for your leadership and continued support. I hope you will again listen to our suggestions today and make the appropriate changes. I look forward to my meeting with the principal at Cascade next week and launching the community advisory committee to help strengthen

065family-school collaboration and guide the ongoing process. Thank you. [INAUDIBLE] Christopher Tran. Hi, everyone. I'm Christopher Tran. I've been part of the Vietnamese dual language program for seven years. Learning Vietnamese isn't just a class for me. It's part of who I am. I plan to keep learning Vietnamese through middle and high school because I want to become a Vietnamese teacher one day. Now, I wonder, how can I follow that dream if there are only one or two Vietnamese classes in middle school and none in high school? There used to be social studies, Vietnamese language arts, and math in Vietnamese at Cascade. But slowly, it was reduced to just Vietnamese language arts and math. Earlier this month, we found out that there were only would be math in Vietnamese. When I found out that we won't have

066Vietnamese language arts next year, I felt shocked, frustrated, and heartbroken. I'm proud of the fifth graders and my Vietnamese community for speaking up at the school board meeting two weeks ago because I know we care. I have two reasons why learning Vietnamese matters. First, it helps us connect with our identity and our families. In fourth grade, my teacher shared a unit about her life growing up in Vietnam. The unit helped me understand not just history, but my family's journey. Second, being very bilingual gives us more opportunities in life. We can become translators, teachers, community leaders, people who make differences. So my question is, why take that chance away from us? Why stop something that is helping students learn, grow, and dream big? Please don't limit our Vietnamese program here. We need it to grow in

067middle and high school because it's just more than a language. It's our future. Thank you very much, Henry Vu. Hi, my name is Henry. Next year, I will be in fifth grade at Weisner Heights. My family lives far away. So I wake up early daily to prepare for school. Even with it's a long trip, I choose this school because it's the only one with the Vietnamese dual language program. I aim to keep learning Vietnamese in middle school and earn the seal of biliteracy by eighth grade. This year, my Vietnamese has improved a lot. I'm almost at grade level now because we practice all four skills daily-- reading, writing and listening and speaking. But I recently talked to a friend who goes to Cascade Middle School. He told me that the Vietnamese program will be only

068one class a year in seventh and eighth grade, and it's not even a required class for everyone. That made me feel confused and a little worried. In elementary school, we learned Vietnamese for half the day. That's how it helps us grow fast in all of our skills. But how will we keep improving Vietnamese if we only get one class a year in middle school? How do we call it a dual language program if we do not have equal times for Vietnamese compared with English? How do we pass the seal of biliteracy test if we do not practice reading and writing daily? I want more Vietnamese classes in middle school and high school so that students like me can reach our goals and remain proud of our language and culture. Please give us a fair opportunity

069like the other dual language programs. Thank you for listening. Thank you very much. [INAUDIBLE] Good evening, everyone. I'm [INAUDIBLE]. I'm a parent of a sixth grader at Cascade Middle School. So first, we want to express our sincere gratitude to the board for listening to our concerns and for considering the reinstatement of the Vietnamese dual language program. So this program is vital for our families and community, and we deeply appreciate the board's commitment to supporting it. So, as a Vietnamese speaking household, we face significant challenges when our child transitions into English-speaking classroom in elementary school. So the program has been a lifeline, not just for our son but for many newly-arrived Vietnamese students-- so, helping them reach the gap academically while preserving their language and cultural identity. So, to earn the seal of biliteracy, a student

070must demonstrate proficiency in listening, reading, speaking, and writing. So this comprehensive skill set is essential for true bilingualism, and open this door to greater academic and career opportunities. A strong, consistent Vietnamese dual language program through middle school is critical in preparing our students to succeed and achieve this important milestone by eighth grade. So that is why we are deeply concerned by the elimination of the Vietnamese history class and now the reduction of the Vietnamese language art class to just one semester in seventh and eighth graders. So, one semester is not enough to build that language skill need for true bilingualism. So instead of scaling back, we should invest in promoting and expanding the program to other schools so more students and families can benefit. We kindly ask the board to reconsider retaining the four year

071Vietnamese dual language program in middle school and explore ways to strengthen and grow in value. Thank you for listening. [INAUDIBLE] Noel Yearsley? Good morning, everyone. My name is Kylie, and today, I want to share-- Can you hold on? --Vietnamese-- Excuse me. Hold on real quick. Just confirming that this is Noel Yearsley. Yes. [INAUDIBLE] Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. My name is Kylie, and today, I want to share why the Vietnamese program is so important to me and my family. I started the Vietnamese program in second grade, and since then, I have learned so much about the beautiful language and culture. I work hard and have improved a lot. I often help my parents translate in English and Vietnamese at church, school, doctor's appointment, or supermarkets. My parents and I feel very proud, and

072that pride comes from the Vietnamese program that has taught me so much. I have two younger siblings, one that is in first grade and the other one hasn't started school yet. We all loved Vietnamese from birth. It's part of our identity. However, my siblings and I still have a long way to go, and we need this program to continue so we can keep growing. My parents said being bilingual is a gift. It would open many doors for us in the future. But above all, fluency in Vietnamese would connect me to my family in Vietnam, Vietnamese community around me. Last month, that Cascade Middle school and Evergreen High school were closing Vietnamese classes, which deeply worried me. It's not fair to close the Vietnamese program just because our community is smaller or Cascade or Evergreen did

073not promote the program enough. Please don't take away this opportunity from us. We deserve to keep learning and honoring our language and culture. Thank you so much for listening to me today. Thank you very much. Maura Fenlon. Oh, this is very short now. Thank you. All right. Hi, I'm Maura Felon. I'm a teacher at Valley View-- oh, good. I can see the clock-- at Valley View Early Learning, and I'm here to talk. Since it's the end of the school year, I figured this was a good time to talk a little bit about all the great work that we've done in preschool over the course of this year. And I brought my emotional support coworkers with me. So at Valley View, we are the first school experience for a lot of kids. A lot of kids

074come to us never having been to daycare, never having been in a group setting of any kind before, and especially not in a very structured group setting like a preschool. So we get to be their first point of contact with, like, the routine of a school day, with existing in a group of other kids, with-- especially for only children, with, like, having a person who likes the same thing you like so you don't get to have it all the time. And after a lot of hard work over the course of the school year, we have seen a ton of growth from our students. We have kids who had just no interest in their peers at the beginning of the school year. Now they're playing games at recess. They're running their own games. They've figured out

075how to take turns and share and solve their problems without an adult having to be, like, right over their shoulder to feed them ideas. Kids that had never been to a circle time or had to do what an adult asked them to do for, like, an activity before are sitting and participating, are making choices, are reading some books or especially-- like, in my class today, we read Pete the Cat because it's a favorite, and a bunch of my class can read, like, half of that book without me. I say, like, the first two words on the page, and they finish the rest of it. So as you go into the summer, I would just ask that you keep early learning in mind as you make priorities for next school year because we're the first point

076of contact for school. Please remember, we exist. Thank you very much. And last up is Megan Gibbard Kline. Good evening, directors, Superintendent Duran. My name is Megan Gibbard Kline. I am a proud Mountain View Elementary parent of a kindergartener this year, and I'm also the co-chair of Yes for Highline. So we're a community based initiative that works to support the passage of bonds and levies here for Highland Public Schools kids. I'm here to strongly urge you to place the upcoming levy on the ballot for November 4 and ask our community to rally in support of this Levy. This is not a new tax. So it's a renewal of really critical funding that has long filled the gap between what the states provide and what kids actually need to succeed in schools. It funds things like

077counselors in our schools, paraeducators, college and career readiness, and competitive pay for our staff and the basics like technology, building maintenance, and supplies. This levy makes up about 15% of our total budget, and without it, Highline Public Schools will not meet the needs of students. The need is real. The state is still not fully funding education for our students or any students, near as I can tell. And while the state has made small strides, local dollars are more important than ever. With new restrictions on how we can use funds, we must rely on this levy to cover more basic education costs. The Highland community has always stepped up for our kids. So the most recent bond was passed at almost 70%. I have every confidence they will do so again. But we need you to

078take the next step input this measure on the ballot. Let's give our community the opportunity to invest in our students. I look forward to voting in favor of renewing this levy, and I want to tell you that my kindergartner, thanks to Highland Public Schools, can read my ballot for me. Thank you all very much. Thank you very much. Well, that concludes our recognitions for this evening. Our superintendent's update, Dr. Duran. I'm so sorry. Just for the record, we concluded the public testimony, that recognition. I apologize. That concludes our public comments this evening. Appreciate that. Dr. Duran? I got checked. All right, I just want to start by congratulating all the Highline students who are graduating this week. Attending graduation is one of the highlights of my year, celebrating our amazing students and the great work

079that our educators do to support them. But hearing their experiences, their stories, and their future plans is just inspiring, and just thank our educators for all the work that you do to support our students from early learning all the way through to post-success for our students. You heard from one of our students earlier in the meeting, and she just shared that powerful graduation speech. And again, as I said earlier, we just heard so many wonderful words from our students, and I really wish that we can continue to capture the essence of what they share because it really just speaks volumes to the work that we do to support our students as we work to ensure that the promise comes true for each and every one of them. This is the last school board meeting before

080the end of the school year. The final board meeting of 24-25 is on July 2. I want to wish everyone a restful summer break. The year presented us with many challenges, and I'm so proud of the Highline community, came together to face them. I just thank everyone, our students, our staff, our families, community for all the work that you do to support our students here at Highline. I also want to thank the families who have come tonight to speak around the Vietnamese dual language program at Cascade Middle School, and as was mentioned, there is a community advisory group that will be starting up to support, you know, the continuing family engagement and program development. So we will be looking for additional ideas. And you know, I know that one of the biggest issues has been

081concerns around enrollment. So I hope through those advisory conversations, you all can continue to come up with new ideas and suggestions for how we can continue to support the dual language program and really appreciate the students speaking tonight because we do talk a lot in our district around being bilingual and biliterate. And at graduation, again, one of our honors is being able to see students who have earned the seal of biliteracy in multiple languages, which is a proud testament of the great work that we do here in Highline. So, thank you for being here tonight. So I would now like to invite Jeb Binns, the President of the Highline Education Association, to the podium, who has been joining us in the graduations. And thank you for being there with us, and Thank you for being

082there tonight. Jeb. Excellent. Thank you. Good evening, President Van. Superintendent Duran, board. I just wanted to start out with the, pleasure of the opportunity to see the culmination of our students work, to see all of the graduation so far, and we've got a few more to go, and to see the different and unique flair of each one. And it's really, truly amazing. There has not been a graduation that has been the same. The script is not the same, right? The students are not the same. The flair, the feeling, the community, it's great. So what just a wonderful, wonderful treat to hear the celebrations from the individual accolades from schools like we saw this afternoon at HVA, big picture to the large scale spectacle that was Mount Rainier last night, right, with 420 graduating seniors. So

083I'm looking forward to that. I do want to say, because I have to, happy last day of school. And I am dressed for summer. And so I'll just leave that as what it is. And you know, I just want to thank all the folks who continue to work and continue to help educate folks. I also want to hope that everyone enjoys Juneteenth tomorrow and understands the reason for having a holiday and to keep that centered in your mind as you go about your day tomorrow, the purpose and the reason Juneteenth is important. We need to remember that, and I appreciate the state of Washington and most of the United States also understanding the importance of the day. With that, I really don't have a ton except for the fact that this will be most of

084our last board meeting this year only because most of us will be down in Portland with the NEA regional representative assemblies for the whole national group is getting together. There will be 7,000 plus of us all in Portland over the-- we actually leave the day after the fake ending of school. And then we'll be headed down to-- we'll be headed down to-- I can only get away with two maybe. We'll be headed down to Portland to conduct the business of the national association. So I'm looking forward to that. So I look forward to seeing you all again after the summer recess and wish you the best. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Thank you, Jeb. I would like to invite Jackie Bryan, our chief financial officer, to the podium, to share an update about the capital

085Oversight Committee. Welcome, Jackie. Thank you. Good evening. I'm here to give an update on the capital oversight committee. This is delivered once a year. So this is our yearly update. The capital oversight committee is made up of a group of community members, and they are asked to track the progress in spending on Highland Public Schools bond projects. This ensures accountability on our school construction project and provides additional transparency to our community and families. Committee members are appointed, and they meet quarterly. So we meet four times a year. Two members are elected directly from our capital facilities advisory committee, or our CFAC committee, and approximately five other members are appointed by the superintendent. They are chosen based on experience with things like bond planning, construction, finance, or real estate. So it's really experts in the fields

086around construction and bond planning. And all are residents of the Highline community. So we also have two board members that serve on our capital oversight committee, and I'd just like to review our members and recognize their contributions this year and thank them as well. So our members include Rose Clark, who was a former chair of our CFAC team in our previous bond, Dave Hawthorne, who is the president and owner of Hawthorne and Company Certified Public Accountants, Elizabeth Leavitt, who is principal for climate response at Jacobs, Stuart Matthews, who is the assistant director for aviation project management with the Port of Seattle, Eric Ruffing, who is our virtual design and construction manager with Swinerton Builders and he is also a CFAC member, and then Mika Sundberg, who is a designer with SKL Architects and is also

087a CFAC member as well. And then, of course, we have President Van and Vice President Tidholm, who have attended our updates as well. During the 24-25 school year, we met, as I said, four times. The capital projects teams provides progress updates on major construction projects, and that really this year included Evergreen, Tyee, and Pacific Middle School. The capital projects budgets are also reviewed at each meeting as well as the individual projects' budgets. And all of our projects and our bond budgets were determined to be on time and on budget this year. So that is great news. The meeting summaries for anybody who's interested are posted on the Keeping Our Promise school construction page after each meeting, and that's on our Highline website just to ensure transparency and ensuring access to all of our community. So

088our first meeting of the 25-26 school year will be August 12 from 4:00 to 5:00 PM. Most of these are virtual, since we have people from outside attending. So let me know if you're interested, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much, Jackie. Director, do you have any questions for Jackie? Hearing, seeing none, Thank you very much. Thank you, Jackie. That concludes my remarks tonight. Thank you, President Van. Thank you so much, Dr. Duran. Now we are going to move to our school board reports. We have no legislative reports. So we're going to move to our director's reports. With that. Director Alvarez I'm going to start off with you, my friend. Thank you, President Van. Just like to say I attended, actually, the years of service ceremony. It was actually-- it's been

089a while since I've attended one, and it was incredible to see. I mean, to see someone in our district to be-- we had a couple. Two of our custodians had been here 45 years. And so it was on June 5, and we had our ceremony, and we recognized 86 employees for achieving 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, and, of course, the two who had been here for 45 years. We also thank-- and those that were here, there were two custodians-- Celine Hagen, that's at Puget Sound Skills Center, and David Park with Tyee High School. And we also thank more than 40 retirees for their dedicated service to our students, staff, and Highline community. But it was incredible to see also the support. And we also-- it was attended-- really had good attendance there. Dr. Duran and

090myself were there and just the amount of support that were there for our staff. So just, it was awesome. Thank you very much. Dr. Espinoza. Yeah so like everyone else, I've had the great pleasure of being at a few graduations. It was really inspiring and touching for me to see just the amount of pride and joy that was in the audience, especially from family members. I was at one of the smaller graduations, but that room was full of love and joy, and it was really important for me as a reminder of why I'm here doing this work is to support every student and all of those families. It's also been very positive for me to hear each of the other board members share a little bit more about themselves through their speeches at some of

091their graduations. I've learned a lot about your stories, and just, I'm happy to be doing this work with you here. I also want to shout out appreciation to my family for helping me to juggle this week of graduation and day job and being a mom. It takes all of us to show up to this work. So, thank you. Gracias. I also want to talk about the Voices internship. This is a group of high school students from across Highline who completed the Voices internship this year. It's a 12 week program, and it gives students real world experience with helping them explore their career goals. Each intern is matched with a local organization, and they are able to get hands on project and mentorship experience. You can learn more about this incredible work in the lobby outside

092of the boardroom. They have their posters up there and their work for display. Thank you so much. Dr. Holien. Thank you, President Van. As a lot of the other board members have mentioned, it has been, and especially Dr. Duran, it's been a pretty hectic week for graduations, but it's been the culmination of so many years that parents, the students, relatives, friends, have all sort of poured their heart into. And it's been really, really touching to go to them. I haven't been to a graduation since I graduated high school. I didn't even go to my college graduation because I was working. So it was just really cool to sort of take a step back and really appreciate all the hard work that goes into graduating. One of the more touching ones were-- Mount Rainier was very

093unique and cool to see so many different people from all walks of life. The speakers were amazing. I had to have Dr. Duran translate a little bit of one of them, but it was still wonderful. There was-- I went to the realistic program transition celebration. That was very touching as well to see another program that Highline offers. And that was wonderful. I was able to go with [INAUDIBLE] and Principal Giammona at Parkside to sort of just dive into what MTSS work is, and the boundaries that we can unlock, if we can support that program, will be endless. What are some other things? I'll cap it off with some sports. I'm a big sports fan. Sort of glad hockey's over, but it's all right. With spring sports wrapping up, there's a lot to celebrate. A couple

094people from Mount Rainier, go Rams, won some awesome awards. Owen Brown is the new state champion, the boys triple jump. He also placed eighth in the boys high jump. Shout out to Hudson Anderson for placing fifth in the boys high jump along with Bella Reid, who brought home fifth place in the girls triple jump. And for all the other athletes across Highline, that sort of marks sort of the end of their sports career. So, hats off to all of the athletes. Thank you so much, Director Holien. You can be doctor for the night. So, Vice President Tidholm, you're up. Yes. Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of, with hundreds of Evergreen High School alumni, attending and visiting the campus for the last time to say farewell to the school that was built in 1955. ASB

095was set up there and some leaders in the community selling all kind of cool swag. They had yearbooks laid out from years and years ago. I tried to find my mother's yearbook, but they stopped the year after she-- I'm sorry, the year after she graduated. Yeah, so, all of them but that one. Very sad to see it go, but also so super excited for the babies. And I brought my niece there, and she was like, it's really crazy walking around like these hallways and these, like, outside walkways that grandma walked in when she was a kid because, you know, grandma's so old. But super exciting and really looking forward to welcoming the community and alumni back in a couple of months to take a tour of the new school and have a celebration. I'm super

096excited and can't wait for our babies to have some fields also. Also had the pleasure of attending White Center Heights' annual carnival, which I have participated in since 2019 except for COVID. It was super exciting to do that. It's evolved from just a carnival club where the babies built their own games, like designed and built them out of cardboard and whatever else they could find, to having all these community partners out there and food donated and a fire truck even. There was a whole entire fire truck. So that was super cool. Also got to go on a tour of the airport, which, who know that they have bees there? Yeah, the airport has bees and also cool little contraptions to catch birds so they don't get caught in the engines because that's bad when that

097happens. But it was just really cool seeing it and hearing about all of the things going on and why they're going on and how they're going on and to be able to ask some important questions. Also have the pleasure of attending a number of graduations, the RTP program, wise scholars, which is a partnership through the YMCA that we have, Raisbeck Aviation, Innovation Heights, and Career Link, a partnership through south Seattle. Super excited just to see the babies graduating and walking the stage and that pride in their face but also that relief and hearing one of the babies had made some kind of comment about being free from, like, this schedule that they've endured for all these years, and now they're in adulthood. And Dr. Espinoza and I looked at each other like, oh, I'm going

098to let them-- I'm going to let them have that for this moment. Welcome to adulthood. Give them a couple of days to figure it out. And then last thing I have, tomorrow's Juneteenth. So, Happy Juneteenth. If you're not aware, Juneteenth is a celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation-- Oh! The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863. However, slaves in Galveston, Texas, were not aware that they were free until June 19 in 1865, and that is why the African-American community celebrates Juneteenth every year. If you were not aware, now you know. And that is all that I have. Thank you very much, Vice President Tidholm. Tonight, I'm going to celebrate our seniors. Just want to congratulate all of the graduating class of 2025. This month, we're celebrating our amazing seniors and their hard work. So our comms team

099are doing a great job. They're spotlighting several of our graduates on our social media channels, including three from the superintendent student leadership team. These posts and videos highlight our student successes and plans after graduation. So, help celebrate them and congratulate the class of 2025. I just want to really do a shout out to our staff and our community members that have supported graduation-- our college and career readiness team, our facilities team, our safety and security team. I see them just hustling at every one of these graduations, and I just really want to thank them from the bottom of our hearts, unseen work that's being done behind the scenes. So, thank you. Our HEA, president, thank you, Jeb, for being up on stage with us this year. Seeing you alongside with us, and Ms. Shawna Moore,

100you're at every graduation as well. Just being up there and sharing our celebration for our kids. A lot of our-- I get a lot of questions going, why do you go to so many? And I go, you know what? This is how we get paid. As board directors, to see our kids cross that stage, that is the thank you. Also, I had the honor of handing my son, at Tyee, his diploma. That ends the culmination or the legacy of the Van clan. All three of my kids graduated, and they were ready to read that one is an accountant. The other one is going-- she's student teaching next year, and my son is going to a trade. So they are ready. They are ready for the world, and I'm excited. This is in partnership with my

101wife. She is my rock. So our kids are ready, and I just wanted to share that with our community. So that ends my director recognition, whatever. It's recognition right? Our report. Thank you. OK, So we're going to move on to business now, our consent agenda. We're going to move on to our consent agenda. If there's not any questions or comments, can I please have a motion to approve it? I move that we approve our consent agenda. I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Hearing, seeing none, thank you. There's no items removed from the consent, so we're going to move to action. This is 8.1, motion to approve revisions to board policy 2110, transitional bilingual instructions. Any questions or comments? Yes, I just had a quick question. It says that there are professional opportunities for

102learning. Here it comes. What would be one example? Bernard will be coming up to answer that. Welcome, Bernard. There are many opportunities. One that I would describe and highlight would be our work with GLAD, which is Guided Language Acquisition by Design. It is a complex training that involves a two day overview that teachers learn a lot of different strategies, and then they learn the pedagogy behind them not only to make content accessible to kids but also to develop their language skills while they're doing that. That's followed by a four day demo. And then throughout, the system has been supported with a lot of ongoing training with key GLAD trainers at the central office that support the work as well as in the schools and then key-- and then lead GLAD teachers across the system in

103every school that are able to support that within the schools and represent that within materials as well. So that's one big strategy that we're implementing, and there's many more that I could describe as well. But that would be the one that I would pick out to highlight. Thank you very much. Any other questions? I think we're good. Thanks, Bernard. Can I please have a motion? I move that the Highline School Board approve-- oh, no. Am I on the wrong one? Let's see. 8.1? I move that the Highline School Board approve revisions to board policy 2110. Can I please have a second? I'll second. Roll call, please. Director Tidholm. Yea. Director Espinoza. Yes Director. Alvarez Yea. Director Holien. Yea. President Van. Yea. This motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you very much. We're going to move

104to 8.2. This is motion to approve the instructional materials committee members. Any questions or comments? I do have probably-- I think I have one question. How long do these members stay within this committee? Is there consistent rollover, or are there new members added? Are there new elementary teachers added? How does that work? Once again, we'll bring Bernard up. I was going to say forever, but there's-- I'm going to bring a friend with me. I will admit, I missed that question. We're talking about our IMC appointments and how we manage who's on there and what the turnover is like and how long they stay. Right, so with joint committees, the district appoints members of the IMC and the association-- I'm sorry. With joint committees, each side appoints their own members. In our collective bargaining agreement, one

105of the things that the HEA President has the privilege of appointing members to the IMC. So I will not have those appointments of new members for those who's termed off. Like, for example, Sherri Clymer was on IMC. She has the gift of retirement. So there are some spots that I need to fill. And so I won't be appointing those until we do our leadership appointments at the end of August, beginning of September. And so typically, we keep folks on the committee for at least two or three years. But it is a fixed one year. And then we-- for the folks that the district appoints, a lot of them are based on the specific position that they have. So that's generally how that works. But we have it for at least a year, and the goal

106is to have them on for at least two or three years, so that they understand how the committee flows and can fully participate in it. And for the community members we're bringing on board, our commitment is for one year, and our intention is probably two to three at least or as long as they would like to stay. Got it. Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments? Well, I do have a comment. So you guys can take off. We're good. I just want to follow back up. Like I stated in the last meeting when this was brought up, I just want to thank Dr. Duran and HEA just for ensuring that we have a cross-functional of all key stakeholders on that. It is really, really important. And thanks, Director Holien, for asking how long

107they stay on there. That makes a difference. So with that said, can I please have a motion to approve this? I move that the Highline School Board approve the superintendent's appointments to the Instructional Materials Committee for the 2025-2026 school year. Do I have a second? I second. Roll call, please. Director Alvarez. Yea. Director Holien. Yea. Director Tidholm. Yea. Director Espinoza. Yes. President Van. Yea. This motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you. We've already moved 8.3 to consent. So 8.4, this is motion to approve amendment to contract between special education department and Sunburst workforce advisor in the 24-25 school year. Any questions or comments? Hearing, seeing none, can I please have a motion? I move that the Highline School Board approve the increase of $357,000. No, I just can't read tonight, I think. I move that

108the Highline School Board approve a contract increase of $975,000 with Sunburst workforce advisors for the-- what? Oh, God. I can't read-- $970,000 with Sunburst workforce advisors for the 2024-2025 school year for a total contract amount of $4,970,000. Great job. Can I please have a second? I'll second. Roll call, please. Director Holien. Yea. Director Alvarez. Yea. Director Espinoza. No. Director Tidholm. Yea. President Van. Yea. This motion passes 4 to 1. Thank you very much. Moved eight-- sorry here. Moved 8.5 and 8.6 to consent. 8.7 is motion to approve the 25-25 Running Start expenditures. Any questions or concerns on that? Hearing, seeing none, can I please have a motion to approve? I make a motion we approve the use of up to $250,000 to utilize commodity food products through OSPI as allocated [INAUDIBLE]. Oh, wrong one. Sorry.

109It's 8.7. Oh, sorry, sorry. Motion to approve. 6-- 8.7. OK, where am I? OK, here we go. Motion to approve the $6,440,000 for 2025-26 Running Start. Is that the one? Am I on the right one? Yeah, you're on the right one. OK. Can I please have a second? Do you mind restating your motion, please? [INAUDIBLE] motion. One second. I wasn't reading the correct motion. 8.7. Correct I move that the Highline School Board approves $6,444,000 for the 24-25 Running Start cost. Can I please have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Director Espinoza. Yes Director Tidholm. Yea. Director Holien. Yea. Director Alvarez. Yea. President Van. Yea. This motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you very much. We moved a lot of items to consent. So that's where the confusion is at. This is 8.12, motion to approve

110resolution 10.25, Tyee High School replacement project. Grant conveyance of property of right of way street improvements along the 188th street to the city of SeaTac. Any questions or comments? I still-- this is still the wording that I think is-- I just want to get clarity on this wording because it's still using right of way and the conveyance. And so maybe I just-- can somebody just clarify this for me just to get it really clear? Because it still has the wording-- now it's put together. Before, I've heard right away. And now it has the conveyance and right of way. So I just would like to get just some clarity on this. For clarity's sake, the conveyance means that we will be giving this land to the city of SeaTac, and we are responsible for building the

111landscaping and the sidewalk on there. But as we do this, then that means that all responsibilities for that sidewalk now transfers to SeaTac, and all potential liability transfers now to the city of SeaTac. And-- I would just also add that we did a little bit of research and background checking on our processes before, and we definitely know that we have to tighten up this process to ensure that we are using the correct language because sometimes we use the term right of way, we use the term easement. We use the term conveyance. But when the term conveyance is being utilized, it does mean that we will be giving that land to whoever we are working with. And so moving forward, we will make sure that the board is very clear about this process and clear to

112know that-- I just want you all to know that we know that only the board can sell our property or buy any kind of property for the district. So we will ensure that that is clear in the future. And so with that now in mind, as we are basically giving this property away in this conveyance, is there any negotiating with this that can happen? So at this time, we have already moved forward with this. The sidewalk has already been built as stated by Jackie, that the city will not sign off on the certificate of occupancy unless we do this. So this is part of the things that we are learning about. Just the verbiage truly does matter. So we have already committed prior to this. So basically, being held hostage, either we convey this and

113provide this and sign, or we can't build, or we can't get the permit, basically, so we can build. Yeah, we would not be able to start in our new school. OK. And to clarify, the school is built, correct? We just can't use it. And I know that at our last meeting, we were supposed to have somebody from the city of SeaTac come speak. I believe last, minute they became unavailable and weren't able to make it. But they mentioned, if I'm not mistaken, that they would send somebody to our next meeting. Do we, by chance, have anybody from the city here to answer questions? No. I had a meeting this week with the city manager, and they will be able to come out sometime in the fall to do a presentation to show the overall master

114plan of how they plan on building sidewalks and expanding that to ensure that they are providing more safe routes for individuals who especially are using public transportation like light rail. So we do have them coming, hopefully in the fall. Thank you. It's unfortunate we couldn't ask these questions prior to having the vote, but thank you. Yeah, and again, we will take ownership as a district for this one. But we did agree to this in previous bars, in previous approvals by the board. So we will ensure that we are much more clear with the board when we are doing any kind of land transfer in these processes. Thank you, Dr. Duran. Director Alvarez, are you good? Yep. OK. With that, can I please have a motion? So this is for 8.12. 8.12 Well, since we have

115no other option, let's go. We got to build. We got to move into the school. So I move that the Highline School Board grant the dedication to the city of SeaTac by adopting resolution 10-25 for the Tyee High School replacement project and authorize the superintendent to execute the associated deed. Roll call, please. I need a second, please. Oh, can I please have a second? Jumping the gun. I second that. Roll call, please. Director Holien. Yea. Director. Alvarez. Yea. That was a Yes? Yes. Director Espinoza? Yea. Director Tidholm. Nay. President Van? Nay. This motion passes 3 to 2. Thank you. 8.13-- this is motion to approve the builder's risk insurance for Pacific Middle School replacement project. Any questions or comments on this? Really excited that it's getting ready to go. So can I please have a

116motion? I move that the Highline School Board approve an authorization for the superintendent or designee to sign a builder's risk insurance policy for the Pacific Middle School modernization project not to exceed $700,000. Can I please have a second? I'll second. Roll call, please. Director Tidholm. Yea. Director Holien. Yea. Director Espinoza. Yes Director. Alvarez. Yea. President Van. Yea. This motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you very much, and the last one for our action items, 8.14-- this is motion to approve district-wide intercom systems upgrade, Telecentric Universe, which is Telecentric Universe Solutions. Any questions or comments? Hearing, seeing none, can I please have a motion? I move that the Highline School Board authorize the superintendent to approve a contract with Electro Comm for the district-wide intercom systems, upgrade TCU solutions project in the amount of $1,596,249.52 plus

117Washington State sales tax with minor additions or deletions or modifications as deemed important by the superintendent. Thank you. Can I please have a second? I'll second that. Roll call, please. Director Alvarez. Yea. Director Espinoza. Yes Director Tidholm. Yea. Director Holien. Yea. President. Van. Yea. This motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you very much. That concludes our action items. We're going to move to a couple of our intro and action. 9.1-- this is motion to approve revisions to board policy 1420, the proposed agenda and consent agenda, and repeal of 1420. Just wanted a high level breakdown here on-- this would amend 1420 and repeal board procedure 1420. The board discussed the proposed changes at the board retreat on June 7. So the proposed changes would allow the board to have greater flexibility with meeting agendas, providing

118clarity and on the purpose of board meetings. This also cleans up outdated language and clarify a process for removing items from the consent agenda. So with that, any questions or comments? Oh wow, I love it. Can I please have a motion? I move that the Highline School Board approve the revisions to board policy 1420 and repeal current procedure 1420. Do I have a second? I will second that. Thank you. Roll call please? Director Espinoza. Yes. Director Tidholm. Yea. Director Holien. Yea. Director Alvarez. Yea. President Van. Yea. This motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you very much. 9.2, motion to approve revisions to board policy 1610, conflict of interest. So, this as well, the board discussed the policy at both the March and June board retreats. The conflict of interest requirements ensure that school board directors

119and the superintendent do not directly or indirectly benefit from school district contracts, including employment contracts. The revised policy 1610 sets out the exceptions to those requirements as outlined in state law. Any questions or comments on that? Hearing, seeing none, can I please have a motion? I move that the Highline School Board approve the revisions to policy 1610, conflicts of interest. Can I please have a second? I will second that. Roll call, please. Director Holien. Yea. Director Alvarez. Yea. Director Tidholm. Yea. Director Espinoza. Yes. President Van. Yea. This motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you very much. That concludes our intro and actions. We're going to move into introduction items. We have a presentation here on a few of these. 10.1-- motion to approve resolution 06-25, renewal of expiring educational programs and operations levy. Hi, Jackie.

120Hello. I'm very excited to be here tonight to discuss resolution 0625. So this is our routine renewal of our educational program and operations levy, which is set to expire in 2026. So, just a reminder, bonds that we talk about very frequently are for buildings, and levies that we're talking about tonight are for learning. These local dollars go directly towards meeting our students' needs. So the state continues to underfund essential services for students, and this levy fills the gap between what the state provides and what our students need. This is not a new tax. This is a continuation of local funding that makes up about 15% of our total general fund budget. It supports the staff and services our students count on every day like mental health counselors, career and college readiness staff and programs, and

121competitive pay for our teachers, paraeducators, and other vital staff. Levy dollars also pay for things like classroom materials, supplies, utilities, insurance, and operating costs that are not fully funded by the state. They support classroom technology, cybersecurity, transportation, our community safety staff, teacher training, outdoor education, and athletics. So it is a long list of things that this levy supports. Highline is currently underfunded in special education by approximately $19 million for the 25-26 school year. The state's new budget added about 2.5 million, but that still leaves a significant shortfall in special education funding. In the past, we've used levy dollars to help fill that gap for students that are receiving special education services. But as we discussed at our budget work session last week, we're now no longer allowed, and there's a new rule that actually prohibits

122the use of levy dollars to support special education. So what that means is districts are now having to use our basic education dollars to fill the gap there with our special education funds. So in turn, that means our local levy funds now have to support our basic education costs, and that creates new funding pressures, and this renewal is designed to help fill that gap. The board action is required to place the levy on the November 2025 ballot, and if approved by voters, the four year Levy would be collected from 2027 to 2030. And those are in calendar years. That's what our levies are based off of. Starting in 2026, the legislature is allowing school districts to collect more levy dollars for essential services. Highline currently collects levy funds based on the number of students we

123serve. For this proposal that you saw tonight in your bar, we used our demographic high projections. So as we reviewed last week, the demographer always gives us high, medium, and low projections. Now, because we are based on a per student formula, we used high projections to ensure that we can collect the full amount for all the students that we are serving. In reality, the amount we collect from each year in 2027 to 2030 will depend on actual enrollment. So it could be less than we're asking in the bar. For the past several years, our enrollment has been closer to our demographer's median projections. This is, again, not a new tax. It's a renewal of an existing tax. We expect tax rates to remain stable over the next four years of this levy. Included in the

124bar tonight are resolution 0625, which is the levy resolution, the Highline renewal levy explanatory statement, and that's for your reference, and the Highline renewal levy ballot title also for your reference. So I'm happy to answer any questions you have as we move forward. Thank you so much, Jackie. Directors, any follow up questions? I do have just a comment. I know this is not a new tax, but are we reaching out to our partner cities to really see what they're going to be asking in the-- you know, during the election? Because that is going to impact, and I want to be very mindful of our community that are already strapped for additional taxes. So are we taking a look at what else our cities are proposing as well? Yes, we'll look at that for the November

125ballot. And I can bring that back if we have information. Thank you very much. So, that concludes the activity for 10.1. You're going to stay on up here, right? Yeah, [INAUDIBLE]. 10.2, this is motion to approve resolution 08-25, fixing and adopting the 25-26. Budget. So I have to say it's an exciting night. We had the levy, and now we have the budget. So this is a year's worth of work in one night. So I'm here to present resolution 08-25 to fix and adopt the 25-26 budget and the four year budget plan. As you all know, we had a work session last Thursday, June 12, to review our five Highline Public schools' budgets and the four year budget plan. And that included the fund balance projections for each year of the general fund. During the session,

126we also discussed the 2025 legislative outcomes and the need to continue our advocacy for full funding of basic education. Currently, we are projected to remain over the minimum fund balance of 3% of all four years, but we will need to make adjustments, create efficiencies and make reductions as costs continue to increase. This year, we had a very robust community engagement plan, including three thought exchanges and meetings throughout the year with various stakeholders and groups. I'm excited to share tonight, and we just found out this morning, that we were the first district to submit our F-195 and F-195F which is the state reports that are mandatory to submit. We were the first district to submit it to PSESD, and the ESD is responsible for reviewing budget plans. So they review all five Highline budgets and our

127four year plan. And they actually came back with no questions or comments. So that is great news. So we are ready to move forward with our budget and to submit that once it is approved by you, hopefully on June 2, to OSPI. I want to really thank the team. There's a lot of them here tonight who worked really hard this year on this budget. It was a really complicated year with the long legislative session, and they have put in so much work into what you're seeing tonight. So we will have our public hearing next Wednesday from 4:15 to 4:45, and we hope the public comes and makes comments about our budget. And all of the tools and reports that anyone would need to know anything about the budget are now available on our website. So

128that includes the work session presentation that you saw last week, the printable budget book, and we didn't print it this year because it is very long, but it is on the website. There's an interactive budget book. So it has by each school and each department a breakdown of budget. And then also on there will be the F-195 and the F-195F for your reference. All right. Thank you so much. Any questions or comments, follow up? I do a quick comment. Since your team is here, Jackie, why don't you introduce them? Oh, OK. So-- Or have them come up and introduce themselves. Why don't they come up? I think-- Andrew, start us off. Come on up. We're calling you up. Andrew Burgess, controller. Not so much on the budget but on the levy. That's what I helped

129with. You're all part of that, bud. I am Gavin Deer. I'm the new project manager. Awesome. Hi. My name is Edgar, supporting categorical budget. Hello again. Lauren McAllister, Director of Budget. And hello. Sarah Sumrak, director of budget strategy. Hello, Ellie [INAUDIBLE], executive director of capital planning and construction. Let's give a round of applause for the dream team. Thank you. You guys should have asked me to move you guys up to, like, 2.1 or something. So, thank you so much. 10.3, this is motion to approve resolution 09-25, authorizing interlocal agreement with Aequalis Group, another purchasing cooperative. Any questions or comments? Hearing, seeing, none, 10.4-- this is motion to approve resolution 11-25, 2025 to 2030 capital facilities plan and proposed impact fees. This is authorization to submit for school impact fees and the continuation of exemption of

130impact fees for King County Housing Authority. Questions or comments? Hearing, seeing none, we have a presentation on 10.5 here, motion to approve the architectural and engineering services surfaces for Bassetti Architects to rebuild Southern Heights Elementary school. Hello, Jackie. Hello. Nice to see you again. This is exciting as well. So, as you know, we had a fire at Southern Heights last July, and the administrative building and the gym were a total loss. And we had to demolish that building. And we did that back in December. We also had damage to the buildings 200 and 100. And we have worked very hard this year with our insurance adjusters to come to an agreement to be able to begin the design and rebuild of the Southern Heights building 100 and then the repair of 200 and 100 buildings.

131So tonight, what you're seeing is the first step of the rebuild. So this is the design and scope for moving forward with the rebuild. I will say the majority, we have in writing from the insurance an estimated amount. They are still finalizing their paperwork to get to us. And what I can say is it will cover-- the adjustment will cover the majority of these costs. It won't cover all the costs of the rebuild and modernization of that building, but it will cover the majority of the costs. Thank you so much for that. Director, is any questions or comments? I do have a question. Sorry. OK. Go ahead. So this is a rebuild to make the building safe and-- Yes. So when the fire occurred, it was decided by the fire marshal that the gym-- the

132gym and the administrative building were one large building. That's where the fire started, and that's where the fire definitely had the most damage. The fire marshal decided that that needed to be demolished. It was unsafe. So the insurance gave us the go ahead to demolish that building back in December, and we did that work fully covered by insurance. And then the 200 and 100 buildings that had been remodeled a year before that for our two schools that moved in there were damaged. So it's not significant damage to those two buildings, but it is some damage that needs to be repaired. There was some water damage to one and some smoke and water damage to the other building. OK. I know that there's some contamination or environmental impact to soil as well when there's fire. Yes.

133That been cleared out? Yes, we are working with our-- we have multiple consultants on this that have been helping us through identifying all of that, all the soil needs and the rebuild needs. And that will all be included in the design. OK. Thank you. And my question was I know that it says some, that most of it will be covered. So do we have the funds to cover the rest? Like, how much of an impact is that going to be for us? So we're still working with insurance. We're hoping to have the majority-- the majority will be covered. What we're doing right now with this is getting a cost estimate, a true cost estimate of the rebuild. The way insurance works is we are covered to rebuild what was there plus some upgrades on the

134codes. But we have different standards now than when that building was built as a district. And if we want to build it to our standards, that is on us. And we do have money in capital for emergencies, which this would obviously qualify for. Thank you so much. I don't think we have any other questions. Thank you so much, Jackie. 10.6-- this is motion to approve Pacific Middle School replacement project, approval of guaranteed maximum price contract, amendment number two, and PO increase to-- or increase number CP 240033 with Skanska USA Building Company. Any questions or comments? Hearing, seeing none, we're going to move to 10.7. motion to approve change order number two, McKinstry contract for boiler replacement project. Any questions or comments? Just checking to see where that boiler is-- where that boiler replacement is at.

135It's listed within the bar to have already planned or underway the following sites-- Hazel Valley, White Center, Cascade, Gregory Heights, and originally Beverly Park site. Oh, I see now. I hadn't opened it yet. Thank you. Any any other follow up questions? OK, hearing seeing none, any items that you would like to add to our consent agenda? OK, hearing, seeing none, well, that concludes our meeting. Do I have a motion to adjourn the regular school board meeting? I make a motion we adjourn. All those in favor? We need a second. I'll second. [INAUDIBLE], we need a second. Jumping the gun. Second. Vice President Tidholm. Seconded. All in favor? Aye. Yes. Any opposed? Hearing, seeing none, thank you very much, everybody. Have a good evening.